Pitch Deck Research Guide — TAM/SAM/SOM
Pitch Deck Research: A Founder's Guide to Market Sizing
By the team at YourBrief.io — AI-powered research briefs for professionals
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Your investor meeting is Thursday. Your deck needs a TAM slide, a competitive landscape, and a "why now" section. You've been building for 6 months — the last thing you want to do is spend 10 hours on research.
This is the guide I wish I had.
Why Research Matters in Your Pitch Deck
Investors see 100+ decks a week. The ones that stand out have one thing in common: everything is sourced.
Sourcing ≠ "Gartner says." Sourcing = "According to Gartner's Q1 2026 AI Infrastructure report (page 12), the market was $18.2B and is projected to reach $47B by 2028."
This sounds like a small difference. It isn't. Investors trust sourced claims. They dismiss unsourced ones.
The Three Research Slides Every Deck Needs
1. Market Sizing (TAM/SAM/SOM)
Wrong: "The AI market is $500B and growing."
Right: "The AI-powered sales tools market (our SAM) was $2.1B in 2025 (PitchBook, Jan 2026). Within that, mid-market companies (our SOM) represent $420M — a segment growing at 35% YoY."
How to calculate it: - TAM (Total Addressable Market): The entire market for your product category - SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market): The portion you could realistically serve - SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market): The portion you can capture in 3-5 years
Pro tip: Use a bottom-up approach. Start with "how many customers × how much do they pay." Investors trust bottom-up more than top-down.
2. Competitive Landscape
Wrong: A 2×2 matrix with your company in the top right.
Right: A three-column table showing how you're different.
| Feature | Us | Competitor A | Competitor B | |---|---|---|---| | Time to first insight | 15 min | 2 days | 1 hour | | Cites sources | Yes | No | Yes | | Structured output | Document | Spreadsheet | Chat | | Cost per research task | $49 | $5,000 | Free (DIY) |
The key insight: Don't claim you have no competitors. Instead, show how you're different on the dimensions your customers care about.
3. Why Now
Wrong: "AI is hot right now."
Right: "Three things make this the right time:"
1. Technology shift: [Something specific that just became possible or cheap enough] 2. Market shift: [A regulation, consolidation, or behavior change] 3. Competitive white space: [A gap your competitors aren't addressing]
Each point should be one sentence + one source.
How to Do This Research in 2 Hours (Not 2 Days)
Hour 1: Market sizing 1. Google "[your market] market size 2026" 2. Find 2-3 analyst reports (PitchBook, Gartner, CB Insights, McKinsey) 3. Note the numbers + page numbers for each claim 4. Calculate your TAM/SAM/SOM from the numbers
Hour 2: Competitive landscape + Why Now 1. List 5 competitors 2. For each, note: pricing, positioning, primary customer 3. Identify one thing each competitor doesn't do (your opening) 4. Find 3 "why now" signals (recent funding, regulatory changes, technology milestones)
Better yet: Order a research brief. You describe what you need. It arrives in 15 minutes with sources, structure, and conclusions.
Common Pitch Deck Research Mistakes
1. Using outdated data — A 2023 market size in a 2026 deck is a red flag. 2. No primary sources — "According to the internet" isn't a source. 3. Overestimating TAM — Saying your TAM is $500B when your realistic SOM is $420M destroys credibility. 4. Ignoring the "Why Now" — If there's no reason this has to be built today, investors wonder why they should fund it today. 5. Unsourced claims — Every number should have an attribution.
The Pitch Deck Research Cheat Sheet
- For TAM: PitchBook, Gartner, Statista, IBISWorld
- For competitors: Crunchbase, LinkedIn, G2/Capterra, competitor websites
- For "why now": TechCrunch, regulatory filings, recent earnings calls
- For sources you can't access: YourBrief can synthesize and cite
All of these are free except PitchBook ($15K/yr, ask YourBrief instead).
Get Your Research Done in 15 Minutes
That's literally the job.
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